Strain-Induced Magnetic Anisotropy in Epitaxial Thin Films of the Spinel CoCr${}_2$O${}_4$

Abstract

We show that the magnetic anisotropy in spinel-structure CoCr${}_2$O${}_4$ thin films exhibits a strain dependence in which compressive strain induces an out-of-plane magnetic easy axis and tensile strain an in-plane easy axis, exactly opposite to the behavior reported for the related compound CoFe${}_2$O${}_4$. We use density functional theory calculations within the LSDA+U approximation to reproduce and explain the observed behavior. Using second-order perturbation theory, we analyse the anisotropy tensor of the Co${}^{2+}$ ions in both octahedral and tetrahedral coordination, allowing us to extend our results to spinels with general arrangements of Co${}^{2+}$ ions.

8 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Electronic structure of normal and inverse spinel ferrites from first principles
• Dielectric anomalies and spiral magnetic order in CoCr2O4
• Controlling orbital moment and spin orientation in CoO layers by strain
• Magnetic coupling in CoCr_2O_4 and MnCr_2O_4: an LSDA+U study
• On the calculation of crystal field parameters using Wannier functions

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• Magnetic properties of strained multiferroic CoCr2O4: a soft X-ray study
• Magnetic anisotropy and valence states in La${}_2$Co${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_{1+x}$O${}_6$ ($x\approx 0.23$) thin films studied by X-ray absorption spectroscopy techniques
• Emergent magnetic state in (111)-oriented quasi-two-dimensional spinel oxides
• Damping enhancement in coherent ferrite/insulating-paramagnet bilayers
• Chaotic Antiferromagnetic Nano-Oscillator driven by Spin-Torque
• Magnetic field dependent cycloidal rotation in pristine and Ge doped CoCr${}_2$O${}_4$